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bibliocat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
When I heard this 1997 book was being republished in fall of 2022 and read the cover blurb, I thought the story sounded fantastic, almost even prophetic given what's going on politically in the U.S right now. In the story, the first black president is elected in 2012, and is assassinated within the first four days of office. This causes a political divide and riots. Along with an environmental catastrophe caused by launching space shuttles, plague and famine and apocalypse soon follows.
(Interesting that Mr. Burton originally had this published between the releases of ST:TNG First Contact and ST:TNG Insurrection , then made space exploration the environmental problem in his book...)
Mr. Burton, you are indeed a national treasure, but this book fell flat for me. It was all exposition and the characters were names on a page and never seemed come off the page as real people.
We never get to know much about the characters beyond the main one, Leon Crane. We learn about him in flashbacks, where he is the climate scientist that discovered how the space shuttle launches were negatively affecting the atmosphere. When he published the science article, his career was over, and violent backlash on him meant his family died because of that. When we meet him, it is after America has become a dystopian nightmare, and he is navigating homelessness like so many others.
The other big character is Dr. Rene Reynolds, a scientist. (Yay, the scientists are the heroes of the book, whoo-hoo!). She forms an instant connection with Leon, literally, while smashing into him as she is being chased away from her lab by thugs. She shoves the data disks into his hands with her important research about a device called a Neuro-Enhancer. This is the object that provides the hopefulness to the story, since it can help humanity heal itself. It also provides the science fiction element to the story. The data was safe with Leon, but Dr. Reynolds is captured. It's up to Leon to find her.
Normally, I like converging plotlines, but there was too much coincidence and randomness as to how the other characters came together. The other characters provide the diversity to the story - Amy is a pre-teen white girl, Jacob Fire Cloud is a Lakota medicine man, and gets transportation from Danny, a Filipino. With Amy and Danny in particular, they aren't doing much to contribute to the plot. Amy is basically there to be the peril monkey and find her mother, without that part ever paying off. All we know about Danny is that he has a family and he's driving an armored car for the post-apocalyptic version of the UPS, because that's the best job that can be had in society at the time. Jacob uses some medicinal knowledge to help a child with respiratory infection in one of the camps they pass through, but was super grumpy about having to do that. I'm guessing there all there for the human touch to the story.
None of them do muchto get Dr. Reynolds out of lock-up. Thank goodness she was a self-rescuing princess!
That was what was disappointing about it. At least it didn't have a dark ending
The other thought I had is that maybe it was written specifically to be an audio book or spoken story, thus all the exposition.
(Interesting that Mr. Burton originally had this published between the releases of ST:TNG First Contact and ST:TNG Insurrection , then made space exploration the environmental problem in his book...)
Mr. Burton, you are indeed a national treasure, but this book fell flat for me. It was all exposition and the characters were names on a page and never seemed come off the page as real people.
We never get to know much about the characters beyond the main one, Leon Crane. We learn about him in flashbacks, where he is the climate scientist that discovered how the space shuttle launches were negatively affecting the atmosphere. When he published the science article, his career was over, and violent backlash on him meant his family died because of that. When we meet him, it is after America has become a dystopian nightmare, and he is navigating homelessness like so many others.
The other big character is Dr. Rene Reynolds, a scientist. (Yay, the scientists are the heroes of the book, whoo-hoo!). She forms an instant connection with Leon, literally, while smashing into him as she is being chased away from her lab by thugs. She shoves the data disks into his hands with her important research about a device called a Neuro-Enhancer. This is the object that provides the hopefulness to the story, since it can help humanity heal itself. It also provides the science fiction element to the story. The data was safe with Leon, but Dr. Reynolds is captured. It's up to Leon to find her.
Normally, I like converging plotlines, but there was too much coincidence and randomness as to how the other characters came together. The other characters provide the diversity to the story - Amy is a pre-teen white girl, Jacob Fire Cloud is a Lakota medicine man, and gets transportation from Danny, a Filipino. With Amy and Danny in particular, they aren't doing much to contribute to the plot. Amy is basically there to be the peril monkey and find her mother, without that part ever paying off. All we know about Danny is that he has a family and he's driving an armored car for the post-apocalyptic version of the UPS, because that's the best job that can be had in society at the time. Jacob uses some medicinal knowledge to help a child with respiratory infection in one of the camps they pass through, but was super grumpy about having to do that. I'm guessing there all there for the human touch to the story.
None of them do much
That was what was disappointing about it. At least
The other thought I had is that maybe it was written specifically to be an audio book or spoken story, thus all the exposition.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Slavery, Body horror, Kidnapping, and Violence
agent_friday's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Trafficking, and Blood
kshertz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
After reading this as a like 3 page short story in Octavia’s brood, I wanted to get the full story. Plus I love Levar Burton. It was great as an audiobook to hear him read to me and there was a lot of special effects and mood music. It was a dark interesting story. He should revise it and re-release it. I think it would be huge. Fantastic sci fi read and it’s nice to hear levar’s prologue in the beginning updating on how he feels and views the world now compared to the world he built in the book. I enjoyed the whole adventure.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Torture, and Trafficking
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